The settlement dates back to the 8th century.[5] It was first mentioned in the 11th century, and already in the 12th century constituted a sizeable settlement with the first church founded in 1257 by Duke Konrad II of Masovia. The church built in the Early Gothic style exists to this day, although rebuilt several times. The town rights were granted to Błonie by Duke Władysław of Kraków on 2 May 1338.[5] Błonie was a royal town of Poland and a county seat in the Masovian Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown. In the 16th century Błonie was a prosperous town, especially known for shoemaking and brewing.[5] Five annual fairs were held in the town.[5] The town was granted new royal privileges in 1580 and 1688.[5] One of two main routes connecting Warsaw and Dresden ran through the town in the 18th century and Kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland often traveled that route.[6] In 1794, during the Kościuszko Uprising, Poles led by Stanisław Mokronowski won the Battle of Błonie against Prussia.
German authorities established a Jewish ghetto in Błonie in December 1940,[7] in order to confine the Jewish population of the town for the purpose of persecution, terror, and exploitation.[8] The ghetto was liquidated in February 1941, when all its remaining 2,100 Jewish inhabitants were transported aboard the Holocaust train to the Warsaw Ghetto, the largest ghetto in all of German-occupied Europe, with over 400,000 Jews crammed into an area of 1.3 square miles (3.4 km2) (meaning that every person had less than an area 9 feet by 10 feet in which to sleep, eat and walk around the ghetto), or 7.2 persons per room.[9] By the time Poland was liberated from German occupation, not a single Jewish ghetto remained.[10][11][12]
^"Burmistrz". blonie.pl (in Polish). Gmina Błonie. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
^"Local Data Bank". bdl.stat.gov.pl. Statistics Poland. Retrieved 2 October 2022. Category K1, group G441, subgroup P1410. Data for territorial unit 1432014.
^ ab"Local Data Bank". bdl.stat.gov.pl. Statistics Poland. Retrieved 2 October 2022. Category K3, group G7, subgroup P1336. Data for territorial unit 1432014.
^"Local Data Bank". bdl.stat.gov.pl. Statistics Poland. Retrieved 2 October 2022. Category K3, group G7, subgroup P2425. Data for territorial unit 1432014.
^Richard C. Lukas, Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust, University Press of Kentucky 1989 - 201 pages. Page 13; also in Richard C. Lukas, The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation, 1939-1944, University Press of Kentucky, 1986, Google Print, p.13.
^Gunnar S. Paulsson, "The Rescue of Jews by Non-Jews in Nazi-Occupied Poland," Journal of Holocaust Education, Vol.7, Nos.1&2, 1998, pp.19-44. Published by Frank Cass, London.
Poland
Coreno Ausonio, Italy
